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Song List Mirror Man Upon The My-O-My Crazy Little Thing Full Moon Hot Sun Sugar Bowl This Is the Day Keep on Rubbin’ Be Your Dog Sweet Georgia Brown (Ben Bernie & His Orchestra Cover) Abba Zaba Peaches Notes Publicity blurb: Brilliant live performance from the Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas 22nd April 1974 Includes the entire KUDL-FM broadcast Complete with background notes and rare images Following the collapse of the original Magic Band in early 1974, Captain Beefheart swiftly assembled an all-new line-up to promote his controversial Unconditionally Guaranteed LP. Comprising Fuzzy Fuscaldo and Dean Smith (guitar), Del Simmons (sax, flute), Michael Smotherman (keyboards), Paul Uhrig (bass) andRead More →

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Yet another version of Live at Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City April 22, 1974 Song List Side A Mirror Man Upon The My-O-My Full Moon Hot Sun Keep on Rubbin’ > Be Your Dog Side B Crazy Little Things Sugar Bowl This Is the Day Sweet Georgia Brown Abba Zaba Peaches Overview Yes, it’s yet another version of the Cowtown Ballroom show from 1974. This one claims to be 180g virgin vinyl and is “Manufactured in Europe”. The label – DOL – is a trademark of Vinylogy which is a Russian company – www.vinylogy.ru I find this release rather endearing in that it seems to be aRead More →

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Somewhere Over Kansas Song List Mirror Man Upon The My-0-My Crazy Little Things Full Moon, Hot Sun Sugar Bowl This Is The Day Keep On Rubbing Be Your Dog Sweet Georgia Brown Abba Zabba Peaches Notes From the publicity blurb: There are very few truly iconoclastic figures in the history of popular music since the mid 20th century, but Don Van Vliet (1941-2010), aka Captain Beefheart, is certainly one of them. By the time of this April 1974 broadcast, Captain Beefheart – and the 29th incarnation in along line of ever-mutating Magic Bands – had reverted to more traditionally-structured compositions, to the chagrin of someRead More →

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Song List Mirror Man Upon The My-O-My Crazy Little Things Full Moon, Hot Sun Sugar Bowl This Is The Day Keep On Rubbing Be Your Dog Sweet Georgia Brown Abba Zaba Peaches Peaches (Encore) Overview From the live broadcast by KUDL-FM from the Cowtown Ballroom., Kansas City on 22nd April 1974. The sound quality is excellent but sadly it is the Tragic Band incarnation so not that much magic. Yes, it’s a pleasant, inoffensive listen but that’s not what most of us want from Beefheart. Already bootlegged as Crazy Little Things and Captain Hook. A two-disc vinyl version was issued with a revamped design in aRead More →

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In: 1974 Royal Theatre London
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I had bought the tickets well in advance, and was eagerly awaiting the gig. We heard shortly before the gig that the band had quit, but the tour would still go ahead, so we were unsure what to expect. All credit to Beefheart and the band for putting together a show in such a short time, but what we got was a competent rock band, that tried their best, but they just weren’t “magic”. The support band was Henry Cow, whom I liked, but most of the audience were restless, and talked through the set. The biggest cheer they got was when someone threw aRead More →

Live in London 1974 cover

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Track list Mirror Man Upon The Me Oh My Full Moon Hot Sun Sugar Bowl Crazy Little Thing This Is The Day New Electric Ride Abba Zabba Peaches Album overview by Graham Johnston Forget it. The world does not need a live album with the Tragic Band. If you’re a completist buying this because you feel you have to, you’ll probably find a couple of pleasing moments, particularly during “Mirror Man”. I suppose we should also be grateful that it doesn’t contain the horrible “Sweet Georgia Brown” that was performed around this time. Other than these saving graces, this is thoroughly worthless. I actually really likeRead More →

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In: 1974 Royal Theatre London, Live in London - Drury Lane '74
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Track list Mirror Man Upon The Me Oh My Full Moon Hot Sun Sugar Bowl Crazy Little Thing Keep On Rubbin’ aka Mighty Crazy Sweet Georgia Brown This Is The Day New Electric Ride Abba Zabba Peaches Capitol Radio Concert Advert Recorded at the Drury Lane Theatre, London June 1974 Album overview Recorded by Virgin but never released until 2006 presumably because the two 1974 Virgin albums were such critical failures they didn’t think it was worth bothering with at the time. Two tracks – Mirror Man and Upon The My Oh My – did appear on the ‘V’ sampler in 1975 and part ofRead More →

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These photographs were all taken by Rik Walton on 4 June 1974 at Newcastle Upon Tyne City Hall on what has become pejoratively known as the Tragic Band tour. Click on any of the images to go to Rik’s website where you’ll find larger versions and information about purchasing prints from him. [one_third][/one_third][one_third][/one_third][one_third_last][/one_third_last] [one_third][/one_third] [one_third][/one_third] [one_third_last][/one_third_last] Copyright held by the photographer, Rik Walton. Used by permission, not to be reproduced for commercial use.Read More →

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These three photographs were taken by Michael Eivaz on 11 April 1974 at The Town Hall in New York. Many thanks to Michael for sending them along. See Michael’s 1977 photographs as well. Copyright held by the photographer, Michael Eivaz. Used by kind permission, not to be reproduced for commercial use.Read More →

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Recording details: Date – late 1974 Studio – Stronghold Sound Recorders, Hollywood Producer – Andy DiMartino Engineer – Gregg Ladangi Musicians: Don Van Vliet – vocals, harmonica Dean Smith – guitar Ira Ingber – bass Bob West – bass (Observatory Crest only) Michael Smotherman – keyboards, backing vocals Mark Gibbons – keyboards Gene Pello – drums Jimmy Caravan – keyboards, star machine Ty Grimes – percussion This album is dedicated to Denny Rosencrantz (who is he?) The front cover is a painting by Don’s cousin Victor Hayden (aka The Mascara Snake) Track list Party Of Special Things To Do (Don Vliet / Elliot Ingber) 3.12Read More →

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In: Unconditionally Guaranteed
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Recording details: Date – spring 1974 Studio – Hollywood Sound, Los Angeles Producer – Andy DiMartino Engineer – John Guess, Jim Callon Musicians: Don Van Vliet – vocals, harmonica Bill Harkleroad – guitar Alex St Clair Snouffer – guitar Mark Boston – bass Art Tripp – drums Mark Marcellino – keyboards Andy DiMartino – guitar Del Simmons – sax, flute Track list Upon The My O My Sugar Bowl New Electric Ride Magic Be Happy Love Song Full Moon Hot Sun I Got Love On My Mind This is the Day Lazy Music Peaches Album overview from Graham Johnston This album isn’t one that IRead More →

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[alert_box type=”info”]This article appeared in September 1974, although the source is unknown. It focuses very favourably on the so-called ‘Tragic Band’ era, and includes a couple of the contradictory statements which Don has made about this time.[/alert_box] Beefheart has been called a genius and that is unfortunate. Geniuses for the most part are people who die poor and unrecognised only to then receive attention (No, this is not Jim Crotchetey we’re talking about). For the most part geniuses are not rock stars and if they are they’re the type who don’t tour and only come out of seclusion every few years to record an albumRead More →